'Where am I? Again, we were sent somewhere?'
Unlike the time he found himself in the pristine hall, as soon as he looked in front, he understood that he was in the same hall, now on the same obsidian obelisk that he had seen earlier, sitting atop, his legs and hands bound in illusory chains. His mouth again was unable to make a single sound. His body again was numb, his brain again was muddled. He no longer felt the awe or the love of God. The same despair that hit him when he came to this strange place again filled his heart. He was again the same sorken with no fervor or passion for the love of God.
The strange uneasiness leads the man to stay awake at night glaring at the ceiling, afraid to sleep but more scared to never sleep again. If only this feeling was intensified to the point where it no longer remained an uneasiness but physically painful and heart-tearing. That was what sorken felt at the moment. He wanted to look for Tamara, but his body, not in his control, restrained him from looking for her.
After some time he finally forced himself to calm down and consider the situation again. They were sitting on the obelisk, far away from the terrifying arc where something strange was going on. He couldn't hear or observe anything.
His thoughts raced as he started to reconstruct the memories when he was in that strange state of zeal. A twisted expression would have appeared on his face if not for the restrictions placed on him.
'We went through that hall…. There was a gel that was on the floor. We kept walking for a long time before the wedding arrived at this gate. Is there anything important that happened? Why were we in that zeal-like state? To control us? Then why free us now? Maybe they didn't free us, it's maybe this strange ritual and obelisk. I can only assume
'What I do know is that we are powerless to do anything' His gloomy heart took another plunge as this thought took its position.
After lamenting his situation for long, his mind still drifted towards Tamara but she stopped his thoughts, unlike his rationalized thinking for himself, Tamara was a matter of heart, and knowing that she must be even more distraught, he didn't want to lose his sanity voluntarily. He already lost his will over his body, and losing his mind would ensure that he never sees the end of this situation turning them into puppets and playthings.
'There were others too… Now that I remember, there were kids, Teenagers, and even Old people in the group… I wonder how they are taking it… must be much harder and daunting, not just mentally but physically too' Sorken let out a small sigh in his mind as a sudden thought came to him that he didn't see any child or old people when they came to this hall. He remembered very well that there were a lot of them when they were chained. Although he hadn't focused on them because most of them were unconscious most of the time and when they woke, all of them were in a state of zeal.
'The sound of chains dropping in the strange liquid.. the sudden rise in liquid and by the time we reached here, walking was much easier, as if a lot of weight had been shed….'
His spine uncontrollably shivered as a chill went down through it. Was it dread and remorse for what happened? Or was it joy knowing he could have met the same fate? He had no idea. What he knew was that even if tried his best, what happened to those children and the elderly was not something he could understand. Are they dead? If so, they must be protected by heaven or if not, what these people will do to them was not something he hoped would come, where he will be curious enough to know by his own choice.
While lost in these thoughts, gradually the area around him started to heat up. The tip of the obelisk that acted as an anchor for the illusory binding slowly started to melt as a black obsidian needle forced its way through Sorkin's abdomen. A sharp pain, but not too painful gripped him. The burning needle slowly spread through his blood vessels burning them to their roots and slowly seeping out every drop of blood.
From outside his expression was as calm as a stoic, an expression of deep meditation and perverse restriction overlapping over each other that made it impossible to guess anything. Apart from the needle that was still in his abdomen, he was as calm as an enlightened hermit.
Sorkin's face twisted in pain and horror at what was happening to his body but it still wouldn't look that way to the outside as if his skin and muscles had long parted their ways.
Obscure yet exaggerated feeling of thousands of Ants crawling over your body and biting every bit of your skin then slowly creeping to the muscles and trying to cut through it. His heart pumped so hard that if it burst, it would have been much more relaxing, but it kept pumping blood until it suddenly stopped. The pain, the seeping of blood, and even the unease, all stopped.
Before sorken could catch a break, another stream of pain drowned him, this time much worse than the last. The blood that had seeped from his body was forcefully being led to his veins again. But, his heart which had long stopped beating still remained the same. But sorken was alive. He felt every bit of it. How his heart that pumped like crazy suddenly stopped and is still that way but he didn't feel uncomfortable or anything that would make him feel that he just lost an organ on which his life depended. He stopped seeing things from a standard point of view once the reality of his situation seeped in. Even if this situation was unprecedented, it was not entirely and utterly impossible when compared to what had already happened. He could just hope he doesn't lose his life once this obsidian needle completes its work.
The needle slowly retracted from his veins and boody and a shower of warmth washed over sorken as if he had just went through the most dangerous surgery without anesthesia. Even the situation wasnt muc different to call it an absurd metaphor.
'They are trying to do something with out blood. But what?.... If it was blood transfusion, what can be the purpose?' He couldnt be sure of his ideas as neither he was related to medical field, nor did he possesed the relevant knowledge to make a sound judgement on what happened. Like everything until now, he can just hope that he will come out alive and so does Tamara.
As he was busy in usual contemplation, he felt that his body has become lighter and no longer felt restrained. He raised his head and found himself floating in the air. As a reflex, his head moved around and found that many others like him were floating and slowly moving towards the arch in the middle. He first looked for tamara, who she saw was in the middle of group and seemed dazed. Other people were in a similar daze. Sorken deduced that even though their physical restrictions may have been removed, they are still not completely free. He tried to speak to confirm his conjecture and was proven right.
As another thought popped, he again looked at the group of people, unlike the last time where his focus was on tamara, this time his focus was on every person he could possibly see.
'I was right, the children and elderly are gone' Even if he already suspected it, this confirmed any remaining suspicions and unconsciously he clenched his fist and shrunked in his body, trying to hide himself from whatever awaited him.